抄録
A stand alone wearable power assisting suit consisting of shoulders, arms, a back, a waist and legs units was developed. The units of arms, waist and legs have direct drive pneumatic rotary actuators driven by portable Ni -Cd batteries. The muscle forces are sensed by a new muscle hardness sensor utilizing a force sensing film. The embedded microcomputer is used to calculate the necessary joint torque from static body mechanics using the joint angles, and the torque is combined with the output signals of the muscle sensors to make control signals. The wearable suit was applied practically to a human body and experiments were performed. Each unit of the suit could transmit assisting torque directly to each joint verifying its practicability.
